Italy’s president, 80, is recruited to stay on for 2nd term

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italian President Sergio Mattarella has been pulled away from his impending retirement and reelected to a second seven-year term as the country’s head of state, ending days of political impasse as party leaders struggled to pick his successor. Earlier Saturday, lawmakers entreated Mattarella, 80, who had said he didn’t want a second mandate, to change his mind and agree to reelection by lawmakers in Parliament and regional delegates. Mattarella won in the eighth round of voting, securing 759 votes. He told the nation he couldn’t let his personal desires prevail over a “sense of responsibility” during the ”grave health, economic and social emergency” created by the pandemic.